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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Presented    by 


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Dhnsiou 
Section 


Third   Edition. 


THE 


New  Theology 


IN 


THE  NURSERY. 


AutJior  Unknown^ 


New  York,  1892. 


THIS    EDITION    IS    PRINTED    FOR 

John  I.  Covington, 

29  Broadway,  New  York, 

by  the   rockaway  journal, 

far  rockavvay,  l.  i. 


NEW  THEOLOGY  IN  THE  NURSERY. 


Mrs.  Martineau  Kuenen  (who  has  been 
attending  various  inaugural  and  other  ad- 
dresses at  Presbyterian  seminaries  and 
churches):  Now  Johnny,  as  it  is  raining  to- 
day, you  need  not  go  out  to  Sunday-school  at 
Dr.  Westminster's  church.  I  will  give  you  a 
lesson  at  home. 

Johnny:  Mamma,  shall  I  say  my  catechism? 

Mrs.  Af.  K.:  1  think  not.  You  know  they 
are  revising  the  Standards,  and  are  going  to 
let  down  the  tender  grass  for  the  lambs  of  the 
flock.*  But  tell  me  Johnny,  what  is  it  which 
teaches  us  how  to  be  saved,  and  about  Heaven 
and  God  ? 

Johmiy:  The  Bible. 


*  Proof  Texts:  Report  on'Revision  to  the  Gen. 
eral  Assembly,  rSgr. 


4  THE    NEW  THEOLOGY. 

Mrs.  M.  K. :  Yes;  but  there  is  something  else. 

Johimy:  I  don't  know  of  anything  else. 

Mrs,  M,  K.:  There  is  the  Church,  you 
know;  and  the  Reason.* 

Johnny.  Do  you  mean  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  mamma  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Well,  not  exactly.  You  see 
the  Presbyterian  Church  sometimes  dis- 
approves of  my  good  friend  Professor  Barkis. 
By  church,  I  mean  Institutional  Christianity.*" 

Joh?iny:  Oh,  I  understand. 

Mrs.  M,  K.:  You  have  heard  of  Cardinal 
Newman,  Johnny;  he  was  a  representative 
Christian,  living  in  or  near  the  world's  me- 
tropolis; but  he  could  not  find  God  through 
the  Bible,*  striving  never  so  hard,  but  he 
became  a  Roman  Catholic  and  found  God  in 
that  way. 

Johnny:  Then,  if  you  can't  find  out  how  to 
be  saved,  and  can't  find  God  in  the  Bible,, 
you  must  become  a  Roman  Catholic. 

Mrs.'M.  K.:  Yes,  it  is  a  matter  of  tempera- 
ment and  environment,  which  way  to  God 
men  may  pursue.f 


*  Proof  Texts  :  Inaugural  Address  by_Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (pp.  24,  f.  f.) 
f  (lb.  pp.  26,  28.) 


IN    THE    NURSERY.  5 

Johnny:  But  suppose  you  can't  find  God  in 
the  Bible  or  in  the  Church,  then  what  do  you 
do? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  I  am  glad  you  have  asked 
that  question,  my  child.  You  can  find  God 
through  the  Reason,  and  become  a  represen- 
tative Christian. 

Johnny.  What  is  the  Reason,  mamma  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K. :  Oh,  I  don't  know  exactly.  It 
embraces  the  Metaphysical  Categories.* 

Johnny:  What  are  they,  mamma  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  They  are  the  Holy  of  Holies 
of  Nature,*  my  dear  son,  and  then  we  have 
the  Conscience  and  the  Religious  Feeling.* 

Johnny:  Are  they  better  than  the  Bible  and 
the  Church 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  The  Bible  is  infallible,  but 
the  majority  of  the  Christian  world  would  not 
assign  a  higher  place  to  representative  Chris- 
tians who  have  found  God  through  the  Bible. 

Johmty:  Mamma,  what  kind  of  tempera- 
ment and  environment  have  I  got?  Must  I 
find  God  through  the  Bible?  I  think' perhaps 
I  had  better  find  him  through  the  Reason,  if 
that  is  the  Holy  of  Holies  of  Nature. 


*  Proof  Text:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p.  26,  28). 


6  THE    NEW    THEOLOGY 

Mrs.  M.  K  :     Never  mind  about  that  just 
now,     'ItU  me,  does  your  teacher  at  Sunday 
school  tell  you  anything  about  God? 

Johnny:  O  yes;  I  know  the  answer  to  the 
question  in  the  Catechism:  "What  is  God?" 

Mrs.  M.  K.\  But  we  need  a  new  doctrine 
of  God.*  You  know  Prof.  Barkis  tells  us  that 
God  is  love.*  I  must  ask  your  teacher  to 
read  his  Inaugural  Address. 

Johnny:  Does  God  love  sin,  mamma? 

Airs.  M.  K.:  I  am  not  talking  about  that  ; 
but  listen  to  the  new  doctrine  of  God.  ]  am 
surprised  that  your  teacher  should  not  have 
seen  it  (reading).  .  .  .  "Irregularities, 
breaks,  misfits,  broken  joints,  deiormities, 
mutilations,  abortions,  collisions,  discords  im- 
perfections all  the  way  along  and  God  back  of 
it  all,  pushing  on  His  way.  ,  .  Ah,  brethren; 
God's  thoughts  are  not  as  our  thoughts.  His 
ways  are  not  as  our  ways.  The  designs  by 
which  He  works  are  not  patterns  for  patent 
office  purpose's,  nor  pieces  of  dilettante  china 
decorations,  nor  aesthetic  models  in  waxwork. 

.  .  Flaws?  Yes;  but  look  at  the  I'lan, 
massive  with   the   lines  and  the  curves  of  the 


*  Proof  Texts:   Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C. 
A.  Briggs  (pp.  46,  47,  48). 


IN    THE    NURSERY.  7 

Infinite  and  the  Eternal.  .  .  .  Frictions? 
Yes;  but  look  at  the  matchless  correlations  of 
energy,  the  actions  and  interactions  of  end- 
lessly ariiculated  forces  that  determine  the 
balancing  of  the  dewdrops,  and  swing' Jujjiters 
and  suns  and  systems  along  their  vast  and 
mighty  courses.  Discords?  Yes;'but  listen 
to  the  Eternal  Anthem  that  rings  from  star 
to  star,  and  ravishes   the  eternities."* 

Johnny:  Mamma,  is  that  out  of  the  Bible? 

Mrs.  M.  K. :  Not  exactly,  dear;  that  is  part 
of  the  new  doctrine  of  God.  It  is  by  Dr. 
Heavens.  It  doesn't  repel  me  as  much  as  the 
answer  in  the  Catechism  which^  you  have 
learned  at  Sunday-school. 

JoJuuiy:  Is  every  word  in  the  Bible  true, 
mamma? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Oh  no,  Johnny.  One  of  the 
barriers  to  the  Bible  is  the  belief  that  it  is  all 
true  f     But  only  the  essentials  are  true. J 

Johnny:  Teacher  says  that  the  Bible  is  the 
Word  of  God,  and  that  whatever  the  Word 
of  God  says  must  be  true. 


*  Proof  Texts:  Biblical  Scholarship  and  Inspira- 
tion, by  Prof.  L.  J.  Evans  (pp    14,  15). 

f  Proof  Thxis:  Inaugural  Audicss  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p.  34). 
%  lb.  (p.  30). 


8  THE    NEW    THEOLOGY 

Mrs,  M.  K.:  That  is  a  ghost  of  modern 
Evangelicalism  to  frighten  children.*  God 
inspired  only  the  concept.f 

John?iy:  Is  the  concept  the  same  thing  as  a 
"Metaphysical  Category. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  I  will  have  to  ask  Prof.  Barkis 
about  that.  You  see  he  has  been  very  much 
misunderstood.  But  when  you  get  older,  you 
will  learn  all  about  such  things. 

Johjmy:  Mamma,  what  a  wise  man  Moses 
must  have  been  to  have  written  about  the 
Creation,  and  all  those  things  in  Exodus  and 
Deuteronomy! 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Moses  didn't  write  those 
books.  Those  were  written  by  Elohists  and 
a  number  of  other  men. 

Johfifiy:     Did  not  Moses  write  Exodus  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  No,  that  was  written  by  P  and 
JE.;|;  Moses  may  have  been  the  Redactor  of 
part  of  the  books. 

Johnny:  What  is  a  Redactor  ? 

Mrs  M.  K.:    A  Redactor  is  a  man  who  puts 


*Proof  Texts:  Inaugural  address  of  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p.  35). 

t  lb  (p.  32). 

X  Proof  Texts  :  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of 
the  Old  Testament  by  Prof.  G.  R.  Driver.  Edited 
by  Prof.  Briggs  (p.  20). 


IN    THE    NURSERY.  9 

books  written  by  other  men  together,  so  as  to 
pretend  that  he  wrote  them  himself. 

Johnny:  Next  to  Moses,  I  think  Isaiah  was 
one  of  the  best  men  in  the  Old  Testament. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  (laughing  heartily):  Which 
Isaiah  do  you  mean  ? 

Johnny:     I  mean  Isaiah  the  Prophet. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Oh,  you  foolish  boy;  we  don't 
know  that  Isaiah  wrote  half  of  the  book  which 
bears  his  name.* 

Johnny:  Teacher  says  that  Jesus  said  that 
Moses  wrote  the  Law,  and  that  the  Law  was 
the  same  as  the  five  books  of  Moses. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  O,  that  is  a  circumstantial. 
Jesus  was  speaking  so  as  to  suit  himself  to  his 
hearers. 

Johnny:  Is  it  right  to  say  what  is  not  true, 
so  as  to  suit  your  teaching  to  your  hearers  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  I  have  told  you,  Johnny,  that 
these  are  circumstantials,  not  essentials. 

Johnny:  Then  some  of  the  circumstantials 
in  the  Bible  are  not  true. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  It  is  not  a  pleasant  task  to 
point  out  the  .errors  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures. f 


*  Proof  Texts:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p.  33). 
t  lb.  (p.  34). 


lO  THE    NEW    THEOLOGY 

Johnny:  I  thought  you  said  just  now  that  it 

was  infallible. 

Mrs.  M.  K. :  Only  as  a  rule  of  faith'and 
practice.  It  is  not  infallible  when  it  contains 
fibs  (laugning  to  herself). 

Johnny:     What  is  faiih,  mamma? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  O,  that  is  a  docirinal'queS' 
tion.  You  must  not  ask  me  about  dogma. 
Faith  is  belief. 

Johnny:  Then  if  the  Bible  is  an  infallible 
rule  of  belief,  I  ought  to  believe  whatever  it 
tells  me. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  O,  no.  That  is  a  question  for 
Christian  Consciousness  to  decide. 

Johnny:  Whose  Christian  Consciousness  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Dear  Prof.  Barkis's  Christian 
Consciousness. 

Johnny.  Mamma,  tell  me  about  Daniehin 
the  lion's  den. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  O,  Johnny,  that  is  a  circum-- 
stantial.  Prof.  Browning  has  shown  that  the 
Book  of  Daniel  is  full  of  untruths. 

Johnny:  Is  the  story  about  Jonah  and  the 
whale  a  circumstantial,  too? 

Mrs,  M.  K.:  Of  course.  Everything  in  the 
Bible,  which  is  not  a  theophany,  is  a  circum- 
stantial. 


IN    THE    NURSERY.  II 

Johnny:  Are  the  Psalms  of  King  David 
theophanies  or  circumstantials? 

Mrs.  M  K.:  O,  you  silly  boy.  Moses  did 
not  wiij^ht  the  Pentateuch.  David  wrote  only 
a  few  of  ihe  psalms.  Isaiah  did  not  write 
one-half  of  ihe  book  which  bears  his  name. 
Solomon  did  noi  write  Proverbs  or  Kcclrsias- 
tes.  The  names  of  ihe  mass  of  old  Tebtament 
authors  are  lo^i  in  oblivion.* 

Joliniiy:  ^Vny,  mamma;  you  are  not  leaving 
me  any  Bible. 

Mrs.  M.  K  :  If  that  is  destroying  the  Bible 
the  Bible  is  drstroyt-d  already.* 

Johnny:  Then  read  me  something  in  the 
New  Testament.  1  hat  is  truer  than  ihe  Old. 
Read  to  me  about  the  raising  of  Lazarus  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Let  me  see,  that  is  in  the  Gos- 
pel accurdin<j  to  St.  John.  Well,  it  is  not  yet 
quite  settled  th:it  John  did  not  write  that,  sq 
I  supnose  I  may  read  it.  But  remember^ 
Johnny,  if  ii  \\ere  possible  to  resolve  ail  the 
miracles  of  ihe  Old  Testament  into  extraordi- 
nary nets  of  Divine  Providence,  using  the 
forces  and  forms  of  nature  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  nature;  and  if  we  could  explain  all 


*  Proof  Texts:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p.  53). 


12  THE    NEW    THEOLOGY 

the  miracles  of  Jesus,  .  .  .  from  His  use  of 
mind  cure  or  hypnotism  or  any  other  occult 
power, — still  I  claim  that  nothing  essential 
would  be  lost  from  the  miracles  of  the  Bible.* 

Johnny:  Were  the  Apostles  hypnotized  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  I  have  not  taken  a  brief f  to 
tell  you  about  that. 

Johnny:  Was  Adam  a  good  man,  mamma  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K. :  Yes.  He  was  created  sinless, 
but  was  not  possessed  of  that  moral  excel- 
lence, which  comes  only  through  discipline 
and  heavenly  training.* 

Johnny:  The  Catechism  says  that  he  was 
created  after  the  image  of  God. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Yes;  but  the  Elohist  had  a 
very  imperfect  idea  of  God.  As  I  have  told 
you,  we  need  a    new  doctrine  of  God. 

Johnny:  Was  Adam  as  good  as  mj  papa  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  No;  your  papa  whose  tempta- 
tions have  been  a  means  of  grace,  has  made 
his  progress  by  the  curved  lines  of  sin,  not  by 
the  straight  line  of  obedience.]; 

Johnny:  How  did  the  prophets  know  so 
much  about  the  Messiah,  Mamma? 


*  Proof  Texts:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p,  37). 

\  lb.,  2d  Ed.  (p.  95). 
X  lb.  ist  Ed.,  (p.  50). 


IN    THE    NURSERY.  13 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Many  of  these  predictions 
have  been  reversed  by  history;  and  the  great 
body  of  the  Messianic  predictions  has  not 
only  never  been  fulfilled,  but  cannot  now  be 
fulfilled,  for  the  reason  that  its  own  time  is 
passed  forever.* 

Johnny:  But  Jesus  Christ  said  they  would 
all  be  fulfilled,  didn't  He? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Yes,  child;  but  God  recalled 
his  decree,  f 

Johnny:  Is  recalling  His  decree,  the  same 
as  breaking  His  promise  ? 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  That  is  part  of  the  "  new  doc- 
trine of  God." 

Johnny:  I  suppose  that  my  little  sister 
Jennie  looks  down  from  Heaven,  and  wonders 
that  we  are  puzzled  by  all  these  things. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  Hush,  Johnny!  Jennie  is  not 
in  Heaven.  You  are  neglecting  those  vast 
periods  of  time  which  elapse  between  death 
and  judgment.  J  Jennie  is  in  the  Middle 
State.     It  is  a  heavenly  university.  § 


*  Proof  Texts:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs  (p.  38), 
\.  lb.  (p.  39)- 
X  lb.  (pp.  53,  54). 
§  lb.  2d.  Ed    (p.  109). 


14  THE    NEW    THEOLOGY 

John7iy:  Is  that  an  essential  or  a  circum- 
stantial ? 

Mrs.  M.  K,:  That  is  an  essential.  We 
don't  go  at  first  to  Heaven  or  Hell.  We  go 
to  the  Middle  State.  The  l>ug!'eir  of  a 
judgment  immediately  after  death  should  be 
banished  fiom  the  world.* 

Johiuiy:  "I  hen  Jesus  did  not  die  to  save  us 
from  punishment. 

M?'s.  M.  K.:  Yes;  but  the  whole  race  of 
Man  is  redeemed,  f  '1  hink  of  the  heathen 
who  have  never  heard  of  Christ.  'I'hey  would 
have  to  be  punished  for  rejecting  Him. 

Johnny:  Then  I  shall  spend  my  next  allow- 
ance on  candy. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  1  hat  will  be  enough  for  to- 
day 1  must  see  about  that  Sunday-school 
teacher.     I  think  he  must  be   a  traditionalist. 

Jo/innx:  Mamma,  If  I  don't  give  any  more 
money  for  the  redeemed  heathen,  I  shall  have 
more  to  >pend  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 

Mrs.  M.  K.:  To  be  sure  and  I  will  take  you 
to  see  the  fireworks;  but  before  that  Prof. 
Barkis  is  going   to   blow   the  breastworks   of 


*  Proof  Tkxts:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C  A. 
Briggs,  2d  Ed.,  (p.  54). 
t  lb  .  ist  Ed  .(p.  55). 


IN  THE  NURSERY.  I5 

traditionalism  to  atoms.*  I  will  take  you  to 
that. 

Johnny:  Mamma.  Shall  I  put  the  Bible 
carefully  on  the  table  again  ? 

Mrs  M.  K.:  O,  no;  put  it  on  the  shelf 
with  those  novels.  The  Bible  as  a  book  is 
paper,  print  and  binding — nothing  more.f 

Johnny:  Papa  says  he  carried  one  m  his 
pocket  all  through  the  war. 

Mrs,  M.  K.:  What  nonsense.  It  has  no 
magical  virtue  in  it,  and  no  halo  enclosing  it. 
It  will  not  stop  a  bullet  any  better  than  amass 
book  \  Next  Sunday,  I  will  tell  you  all 
about  the  historical  errors  in  the  Bible.  You 
mustn't  go  back  to  that  traditionalistic  Sun- 
day-school again.  And  now  let  us  go  down 
and  hear  Dr.  Madison  Park  preach  on  the 
immorality  of  the  Patriarchs.  It  is  sure  to 
be  instructive. 


*  Proof  Texts:  Inaugural  Address  by  Prof.  C.  A. 
Briggs(p.  41). 
f  lb.  (p.  30). 
tib.  (p.  55). 


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